Latin Leaders Seek Contras` End

Agreement Viewed As Setback For Bush

August 08, 1989|By Storer H. Rowley, Chicago Tribune.

TELA, HONDURAS — In a rebuke to President Bush, the presidents of five Central American countries agreed Monday that the U.S.-backed Nicaraguan rebels should be demobilized and evicted from Honduras no later than Dec. 5.

The presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua signed a communique at the end of their fifth summit calling for the 12,000-man contra army to be disbanded. The process should begin within 30 days and be completed 90 days after it starts, they said.

They also called on the leftist rebels of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), who are fighting to overthrow the U.S.-backed government of El Salvador, to cease hostilities and start a dialogue with that government. No deadline was mentioned.

``I believe this is one more testimony by the five Central American presidents that diplomacy is the road to follow,`` said Costa Rican President Oscar Arias, author of the Esquipulas II regional peace plan, signed Aug. 7, 1987, which won him the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize.

``Two years ago we asked the world to give democracy a chance, and today, with the signing of this document, we are telling the world that war is not the solution, that violence has to give way to negotiation. This is the spirit of the decision of Tela,`` Arias told a news conference.

The accord was a slap in the face to Bush, who personally had lobbied some of the presidents to delay the date of disarming and demobilizing the contras until after Nicaragua holds free and fair democratic elections, scheduled for Feb. 25.

Bush has repeatedly argued that the contras, who are camped in Honduras near the Nicaraguan border, are needed to keep pressure on Nicaragua`s Sandinista government to move toward democratic reform.

Congressional sources in Honduras said Bush will face a cutoff of contra aid by Congress if he refuses to spend part of their current $49.75 million humanitarian aid package for repatriation of the contras.

Despite the accord, analysts said, several problems must be solved before the contras and their relatives and friends-some 60,000 people in all-can be relocated from Honduras to Nicaragua or a third country. Many will want to settle in the U.S.

An estimated 40,000 people have died in the contras` eight-year fight to topple the Sandinista government.

While the accord calls on the contras to give up their weapons, the U.S.-backed rebels have vowed not to disband voluntarily until after the February elections in Nicaragua.

``We will not lay down our arms, and our fight will continue in the mountains of Nicaragua,`` Boanerges Mathus of the contra general staff said Monday in Honduras.

Adolfo Calero, a contra political leader, said he would not ask the men to lay down their arms until after the elections.

``We`re ready to exchange arms for democracy, but not for promises,``

Calero said in Madison, Ala.

The accord signed Monday calls for the establishment within 30 days of an international support and verification commission to oversee the voluntary demobilization and relocation, which would start as soon as the panel was chosen by the secretaries general of the United Nations and the Organization of America States.

Francesc Vendrell, special adviser to the UN secretary general on Latin American affairs, who attended the summit, said UN forces would not go into Honduras to disarm the contras if they refused to give up their weapons. But he said other international roles could be played by UN peacekeeping forces, and small mobile units of UN observers could keep tabs on the progress of the demobilization.

In a separate agreement, Nicaragua promised to suspend its lawsuit against Honduras before the World Court once the disbanding of the contras gets underway. Nicaragua pledged to drop the suit, which accused Honduras of breaking international law by giving the contras sanctuary, when the contras are demobilized and evicted.

Ending their three-day summit, the five presidents also agreed to push for the eventual disbanding of the FMLN, starting with an appeal to the Salvadoran rebels to open a dialogue with the government.

About 70,000 people have died in El Salvador`s 10-year civil war, and analysts see no likelihood that peace is in the offing. The Salvadoran question led to a stormy session that ended after 3 a.m. Monday with some of the presidents predicting they would fail to reach an accord.

The Salvadoran delegation was pushing a proposal to get the presidents to link more closely the disbanding of the FMLN with the contra demobilization plan. Nicaragua argued that the two were unrelated because the FMLN is based in El Salvador, not in a third country, like the contras.

Before the accord was officially announced, a State Department official observing the summit said he did not think the plan was ``workable.``